"Goodbye Cruel World" is a song written by Gloria Shayne Baker, who also wrote the well-known Christmas carol, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and several songs for singer Lesley Gore. The most famous recording of this song is by James Darren. Released as a single in 1961, Darren scored his first top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when "Goodbye Cruel World" peaked at number three. It would prove the biggest hit of Darren's career on this chart, as well as on the UK Singles Chart (#28).
Darren, playing pop idol "Kip Dennis," performed the song on a late 1961 episode of "The Donna Reed Show." (He had previously played a different character in a 1959 episode of the sitcom.) The song was also used in a film on Pop Art directed by Ken Russell for the BBC TV series Monitor which aired in March 1962; its context here was the escape from the dying culture of the British Empire.
According to disc jockeys at the time the song was released, the calliope (music)-like riff used in the song was a synthesized recording of a woman's voice rather than a musical instrument.
Famous quotes containing the words goodbye, cruel and/or world:
“The colicky baby who becomes calm, the quiet infant who throws temper tantrums at two, the wild child at four who becomes serious and studious at six all seem to surprise their parents. It is difficult to let go of one’s image of a child, say goodbye to the child a parent knows, and get accustomed to this slightly new child inhabiting the known child’s body.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)
“And forever goodbye! Forever! Oh, Sir, can you imagine how dreadful this cruel word sounds when one loves?”
—Jean Racine (1639–1699)
“The world below the brine,
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)